


we'll figure it out, together

by lilydaydreams



Series: Post Season 4 Lucifer AU [2]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Awkward Kissing, Azrael - Freeform, Car Makeout, Case Fic, Dan Espinoza Finds Out, Developing Relationship, Drinking, Ella Lopez Finds Out, Established Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Holding Hands, Humor, Interrupted Date, Kissing, Light Angst, Making Out, Neck Kissing, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 04, Wings, azrael mention, but only sort of, charlotte richards mention, dan does a good job on his date, dan is a dork but also hes doing his best and treating ella right and we love that, its what she deserves, past dan espinoza/charlotte richards, rae rae - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:47:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21903214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilydaydreams/pseuds/lilydaydreams
Summary: Dan and Ella go on a date that ends in them learning the truth about Lucifer.Dan finally manages to speak a few strangled words. “He has wings. Lucifer has wings. There are wings.”“Yes, Dan, I see,” says Ella, dropping his hand and slowly approaching Lucifer. “Look, I’ve seen a lot of good cosplay in my day, and I don’t have any other explanation for this, but this is definitely not cosplay.”
Relationships: Chloe Decker & Dan Espinoza, Chloe Decker & Ella Lopez, Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Dan Espinoza & Ella Lopez, Dan Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar, Dan Espinoza/Ella Lopez, Ella Lopez & Lucifer Morningstar
Series: Post Season 4 Lucifer AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1577749
Comments: 6
Kudos: 216





	we'll figure it out, together

**Author's Note:**

> Mature to be safe, but probably relatively tame for that rating. Sequel to my previous story "lately, you've been on my mind" but you don't need to read that to read this.

Ella sips her pina colada and thinks about how this is the first date she’d had in years where she doesn’t feel uncomfortable enough to want to make an early escape. Dan’s hand is on her knee as they talk, not high enough to be inappropriate, and deep down she wishes he’d rest it a little higher on her thigh.  _ Ella!  _ She chastises herself. She still feels a little awkward about fantasizing openly about Dan, even if they’re on a date together and she’s already slept with him.

He  _ is _ Chloe’s ex-husband, after all, and he was Charlotte’s boyfriend. That does make things a little weird. Two women she respects and calls friends. Called. She keeps forgetting that Charlotte isn’t here with her anymore, but it’s funny--Ella’s still not sure if her faith is back and if she even believes in God, but she can’t shake a feeling that Charlotte got the redemption she so wanted anyway.

Chloe told her earlier today that Dan was nervous for their date, that he really likes her, and that Chloe hopes everything works out for the two of them, which made Ella feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Not just ‘cause of Dan, although knowing that totally helped put her at ease for their date. But because she and Chloe were close enough that they could talk about this without it making everything weirder. Chloe’s in a relationship, now, yeah (ugh, she and Lucifer  _ finally _ got their shit together enough to figure out how perfect they were for each other), but she’s still the mother of Dan’s child, a child Ella happens to like a lot. So her blessing really puts Ella at ease with all of this.

She can’t talk to Charlotte about Dan. She wishes she could, to make sure it was all okay with her, and because no one was better at figuring out men than Charlotte was. No one was better at deciding what she wanted and going out there to take it than Charlotte was.

Dan sets down his drink and takes her hand in his, his other hand still resting comfortably on her knee, and she realizes she’s zoned out a little. “Ella? You good?”

She shakes her head a little, as if to bring herself back to the present. “Um, yeah. I was just thinking, you know, about her.”

She doesn’t have to say who. Dan knows. “Yeah, I know. The same thing happens to me, sometimes.” His face is soft, sympathetic, almost, but she knows it hurts him even more than it hurts her.

“I guess, specifically...do you think she’d be okay with this? With us?”

Dan pauses to think for a moment, tilting his head. “I think so. I think she would be, yeah.” He breaks eye contact and chews on his bottom lip. “I talk to her, sometimes. I know that sounds crazy, but I started seeing Linda, yeah? And she said people grieve in their own ways, and I don’t know, I’ve just kept doing it. And I told her. About how I feel about you.” He looks back at her, shyer than Ella’s ever seen him. 

“That’s not crazy, Dan,” she tells him, her voice soft, and squeezes his hand. She means it; compared to Rae-Rae, that sounds pretty normal. “I’m glad you have that.”

They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and Ella rests her head on his shoulder for a moment before righting herself to drink the last couple sips of her pina colada. Dan tells her a funny story about something a witness said during questioning earlier that day, and Ella fills him in on her recent assignments. Dan asks her a couple questions about the science behind her work, and she knows he doesn’t completely understand, but he looks content to let her ramble away anyway.

* * *

Once they’ve finished their drinks and walked out the door of the bar, they stand a little closer together than they normally would and idly walk back to Dan’s car. He notices she’s shivering and drapes his leather jacket over her shoulders. It’s enormous on her and smells just like his aftershave. “I had a really good time tonight, Ella,” he informs her.

“Me too,” she tells him, smiling wide. “Let’s do it again sometime?”

He nods, studying her face intently, looking as if he wants to kiss her. Something tells her he won’t take the initiative, that he’s waiting on a sign from her, so Ella stands on her tiptoes and kisses him first.

It’s not a perfect, Hollywood, movie-style kiss (although, Ella supposes, they  _ are _ technically by a bar just outside Hollywood) by any standard. Their teeth click together, and the mechanics of it are a little messy. She pulls away a centimeter and giggles. “Sorry. Teeth.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he tells her, and kisses her again, this time slower and better. She wraps his arms around his neck, his leather jacket sliding off her shoulders perilously and she can tell by the feel of his lips that he’s smiling.

He stops kissing her suddenly and pulls back. “Oh! I completely forgot.” Ella waits patiently, her arms still encircling his neck. “I had flowers for you in the back of the car but I forgot to give them to you when we left work.”

She practically skips back to the car and beams when he presents her with a large bouquet of sunflowers. “I wasn’t sure what kind of flowers you liked,” he says. “I picked sunflowers, uh…” he looks down and chucked sheepishly. “Um, because you’re just, you know, a ray of sunshine in the precinct every day. You’re so bright and kind to everyone, and you kind of remind me of sunflowers. If flowers were people. God, that’s so cheesy, Ella, it sounds so dumb when I say it out loud.” He wrinkles his nose and grimaces.

“That’s  _ so _ cheesy, Dan. You’re such a massive dork,” Ella confirms, and he turns red all the way up to his ears, not meeting her eyes. “But it’s also the most thoughtful thing anybody’s done for me in years. I love cheesy. This is perfect.” She stands on her tiptoes again, this time just giving him a peck on the cheek, and he lets out a relieved breath. 

* * *

They decide they don’t want to be done with their date just yet, and Dan takes her to a lookout spot he says he used to visit growing up. It’s beautiful, and only a handful of other cars are there, despite the fact that it’s a Friday night with perfect weather. Maybe God’s got her back after all.

After ambling around outside for a few minutes, they deem it too cold and get back in Dan’s car, holding hands and listening to the radio, and somehow her mouth ends up on his again. It’s sweet, at first, but turns urgent, and for a moment she’s reminded of when they slept together before. But it’s not like that, because that was full of desperation and despair and hopelessness, and this is different: this is two people in the process of healing who just really, really like each other.

Dan’s hand goes to the small of her back, the other tangling in her hair and she feels a little coil of arousal tingle in her belly and up her spine, remembering how effortlessly he lifted her onto the lab bench last time they did this. She kisses him with renewed vigor, moving her lips down his jaw and sucking lightly on his neck, noting with satisfaction how his breath hisses and goes short when she does that.

He lifts her chin with his fingers, bringing her lips back up to his, and nibbles on her bottom lip softly, eliciting a quiet moan from her.  _ We’re really getting the hang of this, _ she thinks, and lifts herself off her seat and over the center console of Dan’s car, seating herself on his lap for easier access. They stay positioned like that for a bit, her straddling him, which is shockingly comfortable, gives her an excellent angle at his mouth, and creates a delightful amount of friction in all the right places. Her phone rings, and she does her best to ignore it, not even knowing where her purse is at the moment, but then it rings again and it’s pretty much killing the vibe.

She groans, and not in a fun, sexy way. “Sorry, Dan. I’m just gonna check this super quick.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” he tells her sincerely, and she leans over to pull her phone out of her bag without extricating herself from Dan’s lap. Two missed calls from one of her contacts over at the DNA lab. It could be any one of the several cases she’s got open right now, and she knows she needs to handle this.

Ella sighs and moves over to sit back in the passenger seat, hitting the call back button. They tell her they’ve got a match on a sample from one of her recent crime scenes, a little sooner than expected. These things can take ages, so she finds herself pleasantly surprised that it’s been expedited, even if it interrupted a fantastic makeout session. “Dan, do you have a notebook where I can write something down?” she asks him, and he hands her a pad of paper and a pen so she can record the name the lab tech gives her for later, texting it to Chloe and Lucifer in case they need it right away.

She hangs up the phone and sets it down. “Now where were we?” she asks him, determined to get right back to where they left off, but he’s peering down at the name she wrote down. “What is it?”

Dan shakes his head. “I don’t know. The name sounds familiar for some reason, but I can’t place it. Huh.” After a moment of confusion, he grins at her and leans over to kiss her again. 

They kiss for a little longer, Ella’s lithe fingers stroking the back of his neck, until he suddenly pulls away. “Chloe!” he exclaims.

She’s more confused than offended. “Nope, it’s Ella, remember? Not your ex-wife.”

He cringes, realizing his mistake. “Sorry. Not what I meant. I just realized that’s how I know that guy’s name, the perp you just got a match on. Chloe arrested him, I don’t know, maybe five years back? Not too long after she made detective. Nasty murder, even nastier court case, and she was right in the middle of it. He wasn’t convicted of murder, even though we know he was in the thick of it, just aiding and abetting, and I think he got out a couple months ago on parole.”

Ella’s eyes go wide. “Chloe was in the middle of it?” 

Dan nods. “Yeah. If it wasn’t for her testimony, he probably would’ve gotten off the hook completely.” He shudders. “That was one messed up dude.”

“We should probably call her, right? To let her know? I mean, I texted her already, but I want to make sure she’s safe. Especially if he’s still dangerous.”

“That’s a good idea,” Dan says. “Call her cell. She’s not home right now; she told me Maze and Eve were watching Trixie for the night.”

Ella calls Chloe, but it goes straight to voicemail. She leaves a quick voicemail giving her a rundown, but it doesn’t feel like enough. She calls Lucifer, and his goes to voicemail too. “Dan, I can’t get in touch with her or Lucifer. I’m worried about her.”

Dan ponders for a moment. “What do you think we should do? Odds are they’re fine, but an overabundance of caution is never a bad thing.”

“Let’s stop by Lux,” Ella tells him.

* * *

Dan and Ella hold hands all the way up the elevator. After all, they’re still on a date, even if they have to take a little detour to visit Dan’s ex-wife and her new boyfriend on official work business. That’s normal, right?

The elevator dings and the doors part and Ella immediately notices three things. First, Chloe and Lucifer are alive and safe and okay, sitting side-by-side at his piano. Second, they’re not naked (Well, mostly. Lucifer’s shirtless as he sits next to Chloe at the piano, but it’s not like Ella didn’t see him naked that one time at the nudist colony anyway.) or engaged in any sexual activity she can discern, which means her eyes are safe.

Third, Lucifer has wings.

Enormous, white, fluffy wings jutting out of his torso where his shoulder blades should be. They’re mesmerizing, somehow simultaneously terrifying and one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen, and when she finally manages to tear her eyes away from them, she realizes Lucifer and Chloe are staring at her and Dan.

“They’re holding hands! Their date went well!” Lucifer says delightedly, looking at the two of them.

“Lucifer, I really don’t think that’s the thing we should be worried about right now,” Chloe hisses under her breath. 

Beside Ella, still clutching her hand, Dan finally manages to speak a few strangled words. “He has wings. Lucifer has wings. There are wings.”

“Yes, Dan, I see,” says Ella, dropping his hand and slowly approaching Lucifer. “Look, I’ve seen a lot of good cosplay in my day, and I don’t have any other explanation for this, but this is  _ definitely _ not cosplay.”

“Um, Ella, you’re right. It’s not cosplay. They’re real,” Chloe says gently, as if trying to calm a frightened animal, standing up from her seat at the piano. 

Lucifer makes an almost imperceptible shake of his shoulders, and suddenly, the wings are gone, as if they were never there. He picks up a button-up from the couch and puts it on. “Detective, dear, let’s make our guests comfortable before we get into all that, why don’t we?” He turns to Dan and Ella. “Daniel, do close your mouth. That flabbergasted expression doesn’t flatter you. Would either of you like a drink?”

“Yes. Several drinks, please,” Ella tells him, seating herself on the sofa, ready to get some answers.

Lucifer chuckles and pours her a copious amount of whiskey. “Certainly, Ms. Lopez. Daniel?”

Dan shuffles over to sit next to Ella, moving slowly. “Uh. Yes.” He settles down next to her, his mouth closed now, but still looking distinctly as if someone’s just hit him in the head. 

Chloe and Lucifer sit down across from them, Chloe biting her lip nervously. “Where do we even start, Lucifer? I mean, we’ve got to consider that this is going to be a shock for them regardless of how we present it.”

“You’re not a method actor. You’re actually the devil,” Ella says, the pieces suddenly clicking into place.

“Yes, my dear. That’s what I’ve been telling you for years. I’ve never been anything but completely honest with you.”

Dan scoffs. “You mean, for real? How the hell is that even possible? The  _ devil?  _ Chloe, you’re dating Satan?”

“Calm down, Daniel,” Lucifer says irritably. “And for hell’s sake. Satan is one of my names, yes, but I prefer Lucifer. Suits me better.”

Ella is bursting with questions she wants to ask, and says the first thing that comes to mind. “How did your wings go away? They were there, and then they weren’t. Where, physically, did they go?”   


Chloe squints at her. “That’s what you want to know? Out of all the things?”

Lucifer leans back and sighs. “The short answer is they exist interdimensionally. Lately, if I’ve been too relaxed, they’ve been popping out unannounced.” Chloe places her hand on his arm and some of the tension seems to release from his body. “I didn’t even notice they were in this plane of reality until I saw you both gawking at them,” he continues. “Look, if you want to know any more about that, Amenadiel’s probably a better source for that than I am.”

“Huh,” Ella says, downing a large gulp of gin.

“Amenadiel?” Dan asks incredulously. “Like, your brother, Amenadiel? My friend, Amenadiel?”

Lucifer rolls his eyes. “No, the Amenadiel who works down at the corner coffee shop. Yes, my brother, Amenadiel,” he says sarcastically. “How many other Amenadiels do you know? It’s not exactly a common name.”

Chloe gives him a sharp look. “Be nice, Lucifer,” she reprimands. “Again, this is shocking news for humans to find out. I think they’re handling it well so far.”

“Humans?” Ella squeaks.

“Yes,” Lucifer confirms. “You’re humans. I’m the devil. Technically an angel, I suppose, but I’ve been kicked out of heaven so not really. Amenadiel’s an angel, which makes Charlie, my nephew, half-angel.”

“You can’t be serious,” says Dan, letting out an exasperated laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This is the most elaborate prank you’ve ever pulled on me, but Lucifer, this weird devil schtick you’ve got going? It’s not funny anymore.”

“I don’t lie, Daniel,” Lucifer tells him solemnly.

“It’s all real, Dan,” Chloe says. “Look, it was a shock for me when I found out too, but if you think about it, it explains a lot. Haven’t you seen plenty over the past couple years that you just can’t explain any other way?”

“Yeah,” Ella admits, thinking of every time Lucifer’s done the weird “what do you desire” thing on a suspect, or hit someone with more force than should be possible, or scared suspects into confessing without laying a finger on them. Dan just takes a long sip of his whiskey.

“Okay, so we’re all on the same page that I’m the devil. Fantastic. What else do your little human minds want to know?”

“There’s angels. There’s actually angels. And I know two of them,” Dan says slowly.

“Now you’re getting it!” Lucifer says, clapping his hands. “Two and a half if you count baby Charlie, although I suppose you haven’t spent much time with the child yet. Good choice, children are grimy little things.” Chloe makes a frustrated noise. “Ah, yes, except for your offspring, detective. Anyway, yes, angels. I suppose Ms. Lopez has actually been in contact with three of us. That’s quite a few for a non-celestial.”

“What do you mean?” asks Ella, that statement somehow bewildering her even more.

“My little sister, Rae-Rae,” Lucifer tells her.

“But...Rae-Rae is a ghost,” Ella says, confused.

“Right, that is what she told you. I can’t imagine why that sounds more sane to a human than the existence of angels and demons.”

“You’re saying she’s an angel? And your sister?” Ella confirms. He’s right. It’s not much more outlandish than everything Rae-Rae’s told her about ghosts, and Rae-Rae obviously made up most of the stuff about “ghost rules” anyway.

“Indeed. The Angel of Death, to be more specific!” He adds, far too cheerfully.

“Who the hell is Rae-Rae?” Dan cuts in.

“My childhood friend.”

“Your childhood friend is a ghost who’s actually the Angel of Death?” Dan says, like everything is taking a little too long to process in his brain. She supposes she can’t blame him.

“Apparently.” She shrugs.

“Holy shit. Holy fucking shit,” Dan says, abruptly standing up and beginning to pace around. “How are we supposed to process the fact that we’ve come in contact with three supernatural beings? How the hell am I supposed to handle that?”

Ella watches as Chloe and Lucifer share a knowing look. “Why don’t you break the other parts. In general, I suppose you have more tact than I, darling,” he tells her.

“So, um, it’s more than just the three angels,” Chloe says gingerly.

“What does that mean?” demands Dan, still pacing.

“Well, there’s also Maze. And Charlotte, for a little while, but then she was just a regular human again.” Ella and Dan just stare at her. “Okay, so Maze is a demon,” she says, quickly trying to backtrack as Dan stops his pacing to stare at her incredulously. “Yes, Dan, she is watching our child right now. Please try not to freak out. Let me be perfectly clear that I trust her with my, and Trixie’s life, and if anything, Trixie’s probably as safe as she possibly could be when she’s with Maze. I get it, I was scared at first too. But she’s good, she truly is.”

“Maze is fundamentally good and trustworthy and she loves your little urchin more than anything else on earth,” Lucifer reassures him. “But don’t tell her she’s good to her face, or she’ll kill you, violently.”

“That last bit isn’t helping, Lucifer,” Chloe whispers to him through gritted teeth.

Dan runs his fingers through his hair and sits back down next to Ella, letting out a long, labored breath. “Chloe, we’re going to have a talk later about a demon babysitting our daughter, but first I want to know what this is about Charlotte.”

“Well, my mom, the Eternal Goddess of All Creation and the Mother of Angels, escaped from hell and possessed the recently dead body of Charlotte Richards for a period of time, during which she wreaked havoc on earth and made a number of questionable choices, including sleeping with a douche. Then, to save humanity, I had to create another dimension using Azrael’s blade and I sent her there, at which point she left Charlotte’s body and left a hole in Charlotte’s conscious memory,” Lucifer says.

“Oh. I don’t really know what to say to that. I really don’t,” Dan says, his body practically immobile on the sofa next to Ella’s. Ella takes his hand again.

“We can go over a timeline later if it makes you feel better,” Chloe tells the two of them.

Ella finally finds her voice. “So who, in all of this, is actually human?”

“Well, the two of you! And me; I’m completely human. So is Trixie, of course,” Chloe shares brightly. “So’s Linda, and also Eve.” She pauses and tilts her head thoughtfully. “I suppose Eve is a bit of a special case.”

“Oh my God. Do you mean what I think you mean?”

“Please don’t bring my Father into this, Ms. Lopez,” mutters Lucifer in a low voice.

Chloe ignores him. “Uh, yeah. Eve from the Bible. She was in Heaven for a while, but she’s mortal now.”

“Oh, and Pierce, the absolute douchebag,” adds Lucifer. “He was Cain. Also from the Bible.”

Ella runs through this in her mind. “So the man Chloe almost married was the son of your ex-girlfriend? In addition to being a murderer? That’s weird, man.” Ella wrinkles her nose at Lucifer.

Lucifer appears to consider this for a moment. “Hmm. I never thought about it like that, but I suppose you’re right.”

“How are we supposed to deal with this information?” Dan asks, sounding slightly unhinged. “How do we process this?”

“I know it’s a lot, Dan,” Chloe acknowledges. “It took me a long time to come to terms with it, and from what I gather, it was hard on Linda when she found out, too. A therapy session with Linda might be a good idea for both of you.”

“Okay,” Ella nods, downing the rest of her whiskey. “Okay. This is a lot, but we’ll figure it out.” She squeezes Dan’s hand encouragingly. “We’ll figure it out together.”

“Yeah, I guess we will,” Dan says, sounding dazed. 

“So why exactly did you decide to take your date here?” Lucifer asks. “I’m not normally opposed to a good foursome, but you’re the last two people I want to have a foursome with. No offense.”

It’s Ella’s turn to roll her eyes. “We didn’t come here for sex reasons. We came here because you two losers weren’t answering your phones and we were concerned.”

“Yes, well, it was supposed to be a quiet, romantic night in for me and the Detective, so we turned our phones off before we were so rudely interrupted.” 

Dan quickly debriefs them on the DNA match Ella’s found out about, and he seems to relax as he goes into detective mode. “Thank you, Dan. I’ll be careful,” Chloe says. “I appreciate the concern, but I think we’re okay.”

Dan seems frozen in place, but Ella knows that’s a polite cue to leave and go sort out their issues on their own, so she pulls him toward the elevator and thanks Chloe and Lucifer for their hospitality. 

“I need to get home to take care of Trixie,” Dan declares as soon as they’re in the elevator. 

“No, you don’t, Dan. She’s safe with Maze. I promise.” Dan looks skeptical, but he seems too exhausted to protest fully.

“So what do you propose we do? What do we do with all this information?”

Ella sighs. “I don’t know. I guess we just have to take it day by day till it doesn’t sound so crazy anymore.” She chews on the inside of her cheek, considering. “Come home with me. Stay the night.”

“Ella, it’s not that I don’t want to, but I really don’t think us having sex again is a rational conclusion to what we’ve learned tonight.”

She punches him playfully on the arm and laughs. “I said absolutely nothing about sex. It’s not my fault that you’re horny. No, I just mean, both of us are probably going to be up late freaking out, so might as well do that together.”

* * *

Several drinks later, they’ve calmed down to the point where sleep might be a feasible option. The sunflowers sit in a vase on her kitchen table and add a needed pop of color to the room. They relocate to the bedroom, and Dan kisses the top of her head, but it goes no further than that. Lying down, he encircles his warm body around hers and she snuggles into him, somehow feeling overwhelmed and safe at the safe time. As they drift off to sleep, she finds herself grateful that she's not alone for the night.


End file.
